A transceiver normally includes a receiver, a transmitter, and an associated control circuitry. The receiver and the transmitter may be on a single module, or incorporated over several modules even though the receiver and transmitter work together as a single transceiver unit. Transceivers are used in many different applications. One such an application is in cellular basestations in a cellular communication system. Cellular base stations are normally mounted at locations that are not easily accessible. As a result, maintenance or trouble shooting of the transceivers are difficult and time consuming tasks.
In prior art, transceivers are incorporated to have a self-testing capability for determining failure of the transceiver, thus, eliminating a need for a physical access to the transceiver board for testing purposes. Such a self-testing capability is disclosed in a patent issued to Weiss et al on Aug. 9, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,316 (316 patent), title: "Transceiver Self-Diagnostic Testing Apparatus and Method", assigned to Motorola, Inc., herein incorporated by reference.
To eliminate false positive failure diagnosis of the transceiver boards, and make the trouble shooting an efficient task, the diagnosis of a transceiver however should provide sufficient information about the failure mode and its characteristic. The solution provided by prior art, therefore, is further enhanced by a transceiver capability which allows determining characteristic of a failure mode, and whether the transceiver failure is due to a failure of the receiver or transmitter or both.